T 801 SUPPLEMENTAL CIRCULAR 

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Copy 1 



RELATIVE TO THE 



PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION OF 1867. 



PROCEEDINGS 



THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 



OF THE 



STATE OF NEW YORK 



REPORT OF A SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON THE SUBJECT, 

UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE CHAMBER, 

FEBRUARY 1, 1866. 






WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 
1866 



THE FRENCH EXPOSITION. 



REPORT 

OF THE 

SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, 

ON THE UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION AT PARIS OF 1867. 

Unanimously adopted by the Chamber, February 1, 1866. 



The special committee of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New 
York, to whom were referred the subject of the Universal Exposition at Paris 
in 18G7, and the resolutions in respect thereto, submitted to the consideration of 
the Chamber by Mr. S. B. Ruggles, on the 4th day of January instant, respect- 
fully report : 

In considering the resolutions in question, and, in general, the Exposition at 
Paris, proposed to the nations of the world by the government of France, the 
committee have been guided and aided by public documents and authentic state- 
ments submitted personally by Mr. J. C. Derby, the agent of the United States 
at New York, specially appointed by the government at Washington to manage 
the details of the Exposition in this country, and also by Mr. Henry D. J. Pratt, 
of the State Department of the United States, specially charged with this branch 
of its public duty. 

The committee have also enjoyed the benefit of a personal interview and full 
consultation with Hon. Mr. Banks, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs of the House of Representatives, which committee has in immediate 
charge the measures of congressional legislation for a proper representation of 
the United States in the proposed Exposition. 

The information imparted in these conferences and the participation of these 
official representatives has been inportant and desirable, in relieving the Chamber 
of Commerce and its commitcee from any imputation, however groundless, of 
unbecomingly or officiously interfering in a matter the consideration of which 
belongs exclusively to the national authorities. So far from that, the com mittee 
are assured that the government, in view of the enlightened example of France 
in seeking the co-operation and counsel in the proposed Exposition of the Cham- 
bers of Commerce, Boards of Trade, and Academies of Art throughout all the 
departments of the empire, will cordially approve any proper efforts, not only 
of our commercial, industrial, and artistic associations, but of our people at large, 
to secure for the Exposition such a display of their products of industry and of 
art as shall maintain the proper rank of our country among the nations of the 
earth. 



The committee, therefore, unanimously approve the resolutions in question, 
and recommend their adoption by the Chamber. They are as follows : 

Resolved, That the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York have 
learned with profound satisfaction that the government of the United States 
has accepted the invitation of the government of France to unite with the other 
governments of the world in the Universal Exposition at Paris, in April, 1867, 
of the products of each, and will confidently rely on the intelligence and liber- 
ality of Congress to make timely and adequate appropriations for exhibiting the 
products of the American Union on the proposed occasion in such a manner 
and on such a scale as shall maintain its proper rank among the civilized nations 
of the earth. 

Resolved, That in view of the well-considered action of the French govern- 
ment, calling upon all its departmental authorities, including the Chambers of 
Commerce, Boards of Trade, and Academies of Art, to co-operate, within the proper 
limits of their authority, in the enlightened design of fully displaying the pro- 
ducts of France, the Chamber of Commerce in this, the principal national city 
of the United States, will exert whatever influence they may possess with their 
fellow-citizens throughout the Union to induce them promptly to furnish to the 
proposed Exposition, in the most liberal manner, such specimens of their pro- 
ducts of industry or of art as may elevate our national character ; and to secure 
more effectually this object, they now invite appropriate action on the part of 
the other Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade of our country. 

Resolved, That it be referred to a committee of five members of this Chamber 
to invite the attention of the Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade in the 
different cities of the United States to the peculiar national importance, both po- 
litical and financial, of the proposed Exposition, in exhibiting to the govern- 
ments and peoples of Europe the natural and industrial resources of the Ameri- 
can Union, now happily restored to its full constitutional authority. 

It will be perceived that an amendment has been made in the resolutions, 
which at first might be regarded as merely verbal, but which, under the cir- 
cumstances, has a higher significance. It is in substituting for the words, "The 
Chamber of Commerce of the City of New York," by which descriptive name 
the institution is sometimes erroneously called, its actual legal title, "The 
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York," under which it was rein- 
corporated by legislative act on the 13th of April, 1784 That act recognized 
and continued in force the original charter granted in the year 1770, during our 
colonial and provincial era, by King George III, "to the merchants of our city 
of New York, who had associated themselves" (in the year 1768) "for the 
laudable purpose of promoting the trade and commerce of our said province." 

Coming into legal being in this early dawn of our political existence, nearly 
twenty years before the birth of our national government, the Chamber of Com- 
merce of the State of New York is believed to be the oldest commercial incor- 
poration within the limits of the American Union. Beginning life in 1768 in a 
petty sea-port on the southern extremity of Manhattan island, its early years 
disturbed by the ravages of war, it now finds itself peacefully and broadly 
seated within a great commercial mart, encircling the bay of New York, in a 
city the third in population in the Christian world. Of all the marvels of in- 
dustry and art of the western continent, New York, its continental focus and 
metropolis, is the greatest. Nor is this all. It is the elder brother of the whole 
family of American cities scattered broadcast from ocean to ocean, from the 
populous and powerful ports on the Atlantic, across the splendid group of vig- 
orous and flourishing municipalities around our wide-spread interior waters, to 
the Golden Gate opening out upon the Pacific. To each and to all of them we 
would point as tin; legitimate and living offspring of commerce, but more than 
all would we exhibit that glorious and vital tie of continental union, which 
binds them all in one common interest, sympathy, and brotherhood. 



In the interesting and instructive report of the Minister of Public Instruction 
to the Emperor of France, we find that his Imperial Majesty, at the proposed 
Exposition, desires, " after placing art by the side of manufactures, which it 
embellishes and elevates, and pure science by the side of its applications, which 
are only its outward manifestations," to show the progress of France, not only 
in the mathematical, physical and natural sciences, " but also in the moral and 
political sciences in their application to the necessities of society." Encouraged 
by such an example, let it be among the duties of the representatives of the 
American Union at the concourse of nations at Paris, in 1867, to expose and 
trace to their logical effects the political and moral causes which, within a single 
century, have called into vigorous life that great continental series of cities now 
happily and harmoniously united in one common organism. 

This " Universal Exposition of the products of industry and of art of all 
nations" was proposed, and, so far as France is concerned, was established, by 
an imperial decree of Napoleon the Third, in February, 1865. A copy of this 
decree was shortly afterward communicated by his proper diplomatic organ at 
Washington to the government of the United States. That communication, 
after earnestly inviting our government to concur and unite in this " grand inter- 
national solemnity," expressed the hope "that the United States will show a 
disposition to facilitate, so far as it is concerned, the progress of the work," and 
the belief " that its government is too enlightened not to appreciate the advan- 
tages of these solemnities, at which nations contract new ties, collect useful and 
mutual lessons, and thus assure the development of their prosperity." 

It further appears by the decree, that in order to secure unity of plan and 
harmony of detail, and especially to avoid the inconveniences and abuses expe- 
rienced in former international exhibitions — in the conduct of which interested in- 
dividuals were allowed in some degree to participate — the direction of the proposed 
Exposition in 1S67 is to be confined strictly and exclusively to the governments 
of the different nations and their duly accredited organs. No communication 
whatever will be held with any individual, not even with a commissioner ap- 
pointed by any separate State of the American Union. 

The concourse of nations is to be purely governmental, in which each of the 
governments is to assume all the responsibility and defray all the expense of 
properly and adequately exhibiting the products of its country. In this way 
only can the people of each derive the largest possible amount of benefit at the 
least possible cost. They will be called upon to furnish their products, and 
urged to send them freely, but the products themselves will be transported to 
and from Paris, and exhibited, after due examination and selection by the ac- 
credited organs of their government, wholly at public expense. 

The government of France assumes the whole expense of erecting the spacious 
building for the Exposition, called the " palace," estimated at 20,000,000 of 
francs, but is to receive the proceeds of the tickets of admission, estimated at 
8,000,000 of francs, leaving a clear expenditure of 12,000,000 of francs — about 
$2,400,000 — which will, however, be practically reimbursed to France, at least 
in a measure, by the general expenditure at the concourse in Paris, which is to 
last for seven mouths from the 1st of April, 1867. 

Each nation is required to bear the expense of "installation," or furnishing 
its portion of the palace with the necessary cases, tables, &c, which are to be 
of superior workmanship, and uniform in pattern throughout the building. 
The cost of thus installing the portion allotted to the United States, as esti- 
mated by Mr. N. M Beckwith, the commissioner general appointed by our 
government to direct the Exposition on its part at Paris, will be $48,000 in 
gold, for which an appropriation by Congress is needed without delay. 

If the space within the palace allotted to any nation shall be found insuf- 
ficient, its government may, at its own expense, erect supplemental buildings 
in the open space in the park adjoining or near the palace. 



The government of the United States, on the 5th of April last, by direction 
of President Lincoln, whose large and liberal nature comprehended at once the 
high political and moral value of the proposed assemblage, formally accepted 
the invitation of the government of France. Our minister at Paris was in- 
structed by Secretary Seward to assure the government of France that "all the 
executive government could do by way of concurrence in the noble purpose of 
his Majesty would be very cheerfully done," and that application would be 
made to Congress for further legislative authority when it should convene. 

Soon after the meeting of Congress, the invitation of France, with a full 
knowledge of all the details above stated, was further accepted by a joint reso- 
lution of both houses ; and it now only remains for them to make the neces- 
sary provision in money and otherwise for properly exhibiting our nation and 
its products at the world-wide Exposition, in which, they have deliberately 
agreed to unite. 

It would not become the Chamber of Commerce of New York, nor any 
other association of individuals, in any way to prescribe or suggest to the na- 
tional government the sum required for the proposed occasion, nor its mode of 
expenditure ; but, in behalf of the American people, it may safely be asserted 
that they will regard no expenditure as extravagant which shall be needed to fully 
exhibit the power and resources of our country, and especially at the present 
stage of our national progress. They earnestly desire and confidently hope that 
their government will not neglect or undervalue an opportunity so peculiarly favor- 
able for calmly showing to the assembled nations of the civilized world the magni- 
tude of our physical and industrial resources. They believe that the highest 
and most enduring interests of the country imperatively demand that the 
nations of Europe, one and all, shall now distinctly perceive, by unmistakable 
evidence, that the gigantic elements of national strength committed by Provi- 
dence to the American Union, especially if vivified by science and directed by 
skilful and enlightened industry, will not only be fully adequate to any future 
conflict for the preservation of our national institutions, but must inevitably 
elevate our republic to a dominant rank among the continental powers of the 
earth. In a word, they look to their government now to establish by visible 
proofs in the face of Christendom the truth of the solemn and sublime assertion 
of the far-seeing statesman of Russia, that the American Union, " in the ascend- 
ing period of its development, is essential to the universal political equilibrium." 

We must not forget that the proposed exhibition, officially denominated the 
"Exposition Universelle," is expressly int. nded for the products, not of any 
particular nation or continent, but of the whole world, whether civilized or 
savage. The imperial commission has allotted separate compartments, not 
alone to the Christian governments of Europe and America, but also to the 
Mahometan and Pagan nations of Turkey, Persia, and Central Asia, China, 
Japan, and southern Asia, Africa, and Oceanica. Ample space is also pro- 
vided for displaying different races of savages at work in their rude industry. 

It is important to consider this world-wide character of the proposed Ex- 
position in its relation to the long-cherished American doctrine of isolation 
from the political systems of Europe, and as showing the cardinal distinction 
between the political congresses of the European powers, familiar to modern 
history, and the international, or, more truly, the intercontinental assemblies 
of more recent origin, for the advancement of the science, industry, and civili- 
zation of the world at large. It is only in the congresses of the latter descrip- 
tion that our western hemisphere can properly or safely participate, but in all 
of them it may and should be constantly active and conspicuous. In the broad 
and coemical examination, so to speak, of the world-wide industry of the human 
race, and the careful study of the facts Avhich it must disclose in respect to 
the comparative anatomy, industrial and social, of the two continents, the 



American Union, as the leading nation of the western hemisphere, surely will 
not fail to participate. 

The historical fact is alike curious and instructive, that in the year 1821 the 
"Holy Alliance" assembled at Laybach, in one of that series of political con- 
gresses of the European powers, following the restoration of the Bourbons, 
having for their object the strengthening of dynasties and the repression of 
constitutional liberty, and that in that very year John Quincy Adams, the 
American Secretary of State, published to the world his elaborate and celebrated 
report, one of the noblest fruits of his comprehensive intellect, in winch he in- 
voked a "general convention of all the principal nations of the earth" to agree 
upon ann establish a uniform system of weights, measures and coins, which, in 
his emphatic language, " should furnish the links of sympathy between the in- 
habitants of the most distant regions, accomplish all the changes of social and 
friendly commerce, and speak one common language of weights and measures 
from the equator to the poles." 

Among the highest and gravest of the duties which will devolve upon the 
scientific commissioners to be respectively appointed by the various nations to 
study and report upon the great Exposition at Paris will be the careful consid- 
eration — perhaps in one united "congress" — of the details of a measure so im- 
portant to the commerce, civilization, and general welfare of mankind ; in a word, 
to fructify the seed thus early planted by our departed statesman. The sue 
cessful and permanent establishment of one common unit of monetary value 
for the use of all the nations of the earth would outweigh a hundred, nay, a 
thousand fold any possible expenditure of money or labor which the "Exposi- 
tion " may require. The Chamber of Commerce in this cosmopolitan city of 
New York, awake to the importance and value of the opportuity thus afforded, 
respectfully but earnestly express their conviction that, in the world-wide dis- 
cussion at this concourse of nations, whether the "franc," the "dollar," or the 
"pound sterling," shall be selected as the common unit to measure the money 
dealings of the world, the government of the American Union should not fail to 
be present. 

The committee regret to be obliged to notice an opinion somewhat earnestly 
expressed, that it is not expedient or proper for the United States in any way 
to encourage or sanction the proposed Exposition at Paris, for the alleged rea- 
son that its real object is to aggrandize a sovereign whose Mexican policy has 
seriously offended the American people. Your committee cannot perceive the 
force or propriety of this object. Among the various independent nations, at 
least thirty in number, who will meet in the coming "concourse," it would be 
strange, indeed, if no political differences should exist between any two of them. 
It surely is enough to say that the government of the United States has formally 
and deliberately accepted the invitation of the government of France, and in 
the face of the world has agreed to be present. It surely is not impossible that 
long before the opening of the Exposition the subject of Mexico may cease to 
agitate either nation. 

But your committee would go further : and they now express the deliberate 
opinion, which they believe will be re-echoed by the Chamber, that even if the 
alleged differences between the two nations had ripened into open hostilities, the 
great "international solemnity" now proposed, and all other international as- 
semblies similar in aim and character, having for their end the general welfare 
of the human race, should be held, by the common consent of all nations, and 
as part of the public law of the world, absolutely exempt from molestation or 
disturbance, and inviolably consecrated to peace. In the solemn and imposing 
assemblage of 1867 several of the leading European nations, not long ago at 
open war, will be represented by some of their personages of highest rank — 
Russia by a member of the imperial family, Prussia by its crown prince, 
Austria by one of its grand-dukes, Great Britain by the Prince of Wales, and 



8 

France by Prince Napoleon. Surely if they can sit side by side, peacefully 
oblivious of the Crimea, and Solferino, and Jena, and Waterloo, America may 
calmly follow their example. 

In the name of the Christian people of these United States, we devoutly 
trust that this great international reunion, as a precious and potent engine 
of "peace on earth and good will to man," may be allowed to fully and peace- 
fully do its benevolent and Christian work, and may not be debased by any 
petty exhibition of spite or jealousy by any member of the family of 
nations. America goes to Paris, not to aggrandize France, but to improve 
herself by the study of the industry, the arts, and especially the civic adminis- 
tration of the other governments of the world. In such a study she might well 
seek to learn the processes of statesmanship by which the reigning sovereign of 
France has been enabled in twelve short years to double the assessed money 
value of his empire, raising it from one hundred and twenty-four thousand mil- 
lions of francs in 1852, to two hundred and forty-nine thousand millions in 1864. 
Nay, more, she might specifically ask how far that magnificent result was due 
to the wise and energetic prosecution of the great and vital works of intercom- 
munication which have so greatly cheapened the locomotion of persons and 
property in France. Should such a study teach the American people the wisdom 
and necessity of promptly and vigorously securing the completion of the national 
communications so urgently needed for placing their food in the Mississippi 
valley by the side of their gold and silver in the rich but distant metalliferous 
regions of the interior, the participation of their government in the Exposition 
would be most fruitfully rewarded. 

In the documents recently transmitted to Congress by President Johnson, in 
a special message commending the Paris Exposition " to their early and favorable 
attention," will be found an interesting communication from Commissioner Gen- 
eral Beckwith, in which, after stating that the exports of France for the last 
year were five hundred and eighty millions of dollars, he well observes that — 

"This growth of the external commerce is but the index of the greater growth 
of internal commerce, resulting from the increased productiveness imparted to 
labor, skill, and capital, traceable in its details directly to the application of the 
sciences to the industrial arts. 

"If it be true that civilization was led in most countries, for a long period, by 
a few men of genius skilled in political science and literature, it is not less true 
that the men of physical science have at length come to their aid. 

" The geologists, naturalists, chemists, mineralogists, inventors and engineers 
are now directing the labor of the world, with a success never before attained. 
As the intellectual domination of the material world increases, the hardships and 
barrenness of toil diminish, and its products multiply ; and while political 
science emancipates the enslaved races, physical science enslaves the elements 
and forces of nature, and emancipates mankind. 

" In this great movement the largest benefits will fall, with the largest mar- 
kets of the world, on those who make the best provision for the development 
and diffusion of the practical sciences as applied to industry. 

"No nation produces within itself all these in perfection, nor keeps up with 
the daily progress in them; but those are most advanced in the race who adopt 
the best methods of collecting and disseminating the progressive knowledge re- 
sulting from the studies and iabors of all. 

" Among the methods for this purpose, international assemblies and exhibitions 
are increasing in numbers, in frequency and in importance. 

" The diffusion of knowledge is in proportion to the numbers brought in simul- 
taneous contact with its sources and with each other ; and the more numerous 
the objects assembled, the more numerous the exhibitors and visitors brought 
together, the better will be the results." 

In the large and liberal views so clearly expressed your committee cannot 



but think that the Chamber of Commerce of New York, and its kindred insti- 
tutions throughout the country, will unanimously and cordially concur. In the 
spirit of the distinguished diplomatist, who bluntly but wisely declared that 
" England wants no poor neighbors," we hold, that the highest interests of all 
the nations of the earth are best promoted by the general advance of them all, in 
the arts of civilization and peace ; and that no more effectual agency can be pro- 
posed for this comprehensive purpose than the international congresses of our 
modern world for the universal interchange of knowledge, scientific, artistic and 
industrial. 

The last international statistical congress was held at Berlin in 1863, at 
which it was unanimously recommended to all the nations to constantly inter- 
change the statistical publication of each, that all might accurately know the 
physical and moral condition and progress of all. Upon that occasion reference 
was made to the exalted sentiments embodied in the inaugural address of Prince 
Albert, who had presided at the preceding congress at London. Speaking of 
the world-improving effects of such statistical comparisons and studies, he 
nobly says : 

" They prove to us afresh in figures, what we know already from feeling and 
experience, how dependent the different nations are upon each other for their 
progress, for their moral and material prosperity, and that the essential condi- 
tion of their mutual happiness is the maintenance of peace and good will among 
each other. Let them all be rivals, but rivals in the noble race of social im- 
provement, in which, although it may be the lot of one to arrive first at the 
goal, yet all will equally share the prize, all feeling their own powers and 
strength increase in the healthy competition." 

We should ever bear in mind that the world lives no longer in barbarous 
and feeble "tribes," but in civilized and powerful "nations," themselves forming 
a world-wide family with mutual rights and mutual obligations. This cardinal 
truth should be the pole-star of our public ethics. The moral interfusion 
of nations, with Christianity creating one common Christendom, has been stead- 
ily strengthening through the modern ages. The catholicity of science, with its 
universal laws, applications, and modes of notation and expression, pervades 
the human race. Its universal agents, alike subtle and powerful, go forth to 
subdue earth and ocean for the common enjoyment of man. At this very hour, 
not content with lighting every sea-coast by the most brilliant and delicate ap- 
paratus, deeply penetrating the darkness, to save from wreck the mariners of 
the globe, it is seeking to establish, through the common agency of the mari- 
time powers, a system of signals, uttering, on the broadest ocean wastes and 
amid the wildest fury of the elements, one common, international language of 
world, encircling humanity. Cannot the nations consent, at least occasionally, 
to meet on the land in peaceful fraternity, kindly and wisely to seek the good 
of all ? 

The invitation from the government of France to unite in the Exposition at 
Paris did not reach the government at Washington until April last, after Con- 
gress had adjourned, so that the State Department was not able to state, in an- 
swer, what amount of space would be required for the products of the United 
States in the proposed exhibition, as it would mainly depend on the money ap- 
propriations and other necessary provisions by Congress when they should reas- 
semble. Meanwhile, Mr. Bigelow, our minister at Paris, under special instruc- 
tions from Secretary Seward, has exerted himself ably and efficiently to secure 
for the United States not only adequate space in the Exposition, but a pro- 
longation of the time fixed by the imperial commission for reporting the products 
to be exhibited. 

The report of Secretary Seward to President Johnson, transmitted to Con- 
gress on the 11th of December, states the importance of an early appropriation 
on their part for the necessary expenses, as being "a judicious outlay, from 



10 

which large returns may be confidently anticipated in effects upon the national 
revenues and resources, by tending to expand the demand for our productions 
by attracting, for the development of our latent wealth, re-enforcements of laboi 
and capital, and in the collection and diffusion of useful knowledge of the im- 
proved applications of science to agriculture, manufactures, and art, through the 
results of the reports of the general scientific committee. The moral influence, 
moreover, of a just and liberal illustration of the vitality and progress of this 
nation, at such an international gathering, so soon after a great civil war, ought 
not to be overlooked in the consideration of the subject." 

In the absence of any designation of space in behalf of the United States, the 
imperial commission allotted, early in 1S65, an area for their use about six times 
as large as that which had been occupied by our citizens at the prior exhibitions 
in London and Paris, but which, for want of adequate preparation, had been by 
no means creditable to our country as a whole. It requires but a slight exami- 
nation of the programme of products proposed to be exhibited at the Exposition 
of 1867, and of the capacity of our country to fill many of its departments, to 
see that the amount of space now allotted to the United States will be wholly 
inadequate, and that it will be necessary for our government, without delay, to 
secure additional room by erecting a supplemental building on the open grounds 
adjoining or near the "palace." 

The diagram of the "palace" and its interior divisions shows it to be a 
building of elliptical form, about 1,610 feet long and 1,245 feet broad, covering 
an area of about 35 acres, in the centre of the "Champ de Mars," a spacious 
open square or " park" of about 150 acres. In the centre of the "palace" is an 
open interior court or garden, about 533 feet long and 184 feet broad. The 
" palace " covers an elliptical ring around this interior garden of about 490 feet in 
breadth, with a total area of 143,848 square metres, very nearly equal, at 10 J 
square feet to the metre, to 1,510,000 square feet. 

This elliptical building is subdivided by three concentric passage-ways into 
seven separate galleries, each about 50 feet broad, which are respectively al- 
lotted to the first seven grand divisions or " groups " of objects to be exhibited. 
By a single walk around either of the " galleries," the visitor may successively 
review and compare the products of the respective nations, of the particular 
character embraced in the " group." There are ten "groups " in all, of which 
three will be outside of the "palace," in the park adjacent, principally embracing 
living products of agriculture and of horticulture, with several objects of mis- 
cellaneous character. 

These ten " groups " are each divided into " classes " more or less numerous, 
there being 98 in all. They are fully described in the analytical programme 
prepared by the imperial commission, a copy of which is transmitted herewith 
for the examination of the Chamber. It deserves to be attentively studied for 
its full and clear analysis of the industrial and artistic products of all nations. 

Your committee have only room, in the present report, briefly to state the 
headings of the "groups" — the first seven successively occupying the seven 
"galleries" of the "palace," and the remaining three, portions of the "park," 
adjacent. 

No. 1 embraces "Works of Art," in five classes. 

No. 2 embraces " Materials and their applications in the Liberal Arts," in 
eight classes. 

No. 3 embraces " Furniture and other objects used in Dwellings," in thirteen 
classes. 

No. 4 embraces " Garments, Tissues for Clothing, and other Wearing Ap- 
parel," in thiiteen classes. 

No. 5 embraces "Products, wrought and unwrought, of Extractive Indus-, 
tries," (including mines, forests, agriculture, fisheries, hunting, leather, furs 
dyes, chemicals and collections of natural growth,) in seven classes. 



11 

No. 6 embraces " Machines, Instruments and Processes of Common Arts," in 
venty classes. 

No. 7 embraces " Food," fresh or preserved, in various stages, in seven classes. 

No. 8 embraces (in the park) "Animals and specimens of Agricultural Es- 
tablishments," in nine classes. 

No. 9 embraces "Living Products and specimens of Horticulture," in six 
classes. 

No. 10 embraces "Objects connected with the Amelioration of the Moral and 
Physical Condition of the Population," in seven classes. 

It is not expected that all the nations can furnish specimens of interest in all 
the groups, but that the plan will be so far flexible as to permit room to betaken 
from any gallery not fully occupied, for an excess of objects in the gallery ad- 
jacent ; but each group must be confined within the particular passage-ways 
dividing the building, and no group wholly obliterated. 

The total area within the palace is divided among the different nations in the 
following proportions : 

TO EUROPEAN NATIONS. 

Square Proportion of 
metres the whole. 

France 64,056 0.438 

Great Britain and dependencies 23,002 0.157 

Prussia 7,528 0.052 

Austria 7,528 0.052 

Other German states 7,528 0.052 

Belgium 7,249 0.050 

Italy 3,888 0.027 

Eussia 2,916 0.018 

Switzerland 2,416 0.016 

Sweden and Norway 2,091 0.014 

Spain 1,944 0.014 

Portugal 1,134 0.008 

Denmark 650 0.005 

Greece 648 0.004 

Roumania 648 0.004 

Papal states 300 0.002 

TO AMERICAN NATIONS. 

To the United States 2,788 0.020 

Brazil 972 0.006 

Mexico and Central America 648 0.004 

South American states 810 0.006 

TO MOHAMMEDAN AND PAGAN NATIONS. 

To Turkey 1,296 0.008 

Persia and Central Asia 648 0.004 

China, Japan and southern Asia 810 0.006 

African and Oceanica 810 0.006 

It thus appears that the proportion of space allotted to the United States is 
0.020, or one-fiftieth part of the whole, being 2,788 square metres, about 29,234 
square feet. From this must be deducted the necessary spaces for the open 
passage-ways running through it, leaving an available space remaining of only 
16,824 square feet, not quite equal to the area of seven ordinary building lots 
in New York. It forms a narrow wedge-shaped figure, about 450 feet long and 
100 feet broad, at the exterior line of the palace, converging to a front of about 
11 feet on the interior garden. It is subdivided as follows : 



12 

For group No. 1, "works of art," 665 square feet, (with 1,286 feet of wall 
room for pictures.) 

For group No. 2, materials for liberal arts 1, 830 feet. 

For group No. 3, furniture, &c ] , 0S2 " 

For group No. 4, garments, &c 2, 467 " 

For group No. 5, products, &c 3, S80 " 

For group No. 6, machines, &c 5,610 " 

For group No. 7, food 1,190 " 

Total 16, 824 feet. 



It must be apparent at once that these spaces will not suffice to adequately 
exhibit the products of the United States, and that it will be indispensably ne- 
cessary for our government to erect a supplemental building. 

The applications for space already made to Mr. Derby, the agent of the United 
States at New York, far mire than fill the whole of the space above described. 
The government of Belgium already finds the space allotted to her quite in- 
sufficient, although nearly three times that of the United States, and is to erect 
a supplemental building in the park. 

It will be perceived that the last of the resolutions recommended by the com- 
mittee for adoption by the Chamber specially invites the attention of the Cham- 
bers of Commerce and Boards of Trade in the different cities of the United 
States to the peculiar national importance, both political and financial, of the 
proposed Exposition. There is an evident propriety in so doing, in the greater fit- 
ness of those institutions for selecting, at least for their own localities, the objects 
most worthy of exhibition in Europe. To their better judgment the Chamber 
of Commerce of New York leaves that selection, believing that the proper officers 
of the government will judiciously collate and condense the local information 
thus to be furnished, and be thereby enabled to comprehensively and accurately 
present at ^aris the varied resources of our country, not only as a whole, but in 
their due proportions. 

Some of the proposed " groups" embrace articles of luxurious character, in 
which our country may not yet be pre-eminent. But even in the department of 
"art," we need not blush for the glowing landscapes which shall depict the 
lights and shadows of our varied scenery, from the gentle valleys of the Atlan- 
tic States to the majestic and giant peaks of our Cordilleras, enclosing within our 
broad interior another Switzerland. In this great Exposition each of our States 
may, in fact, paint its own physical portrait — not on the canvass, nor in human 
lineaments, but in the characteristic exhibition of its peculiar products. 

New England may, and doubtless will, abundantly display the marvels of her 
pre-eminently inventive genius, and her varied and "victorious industry" on 
land and sea. New York, the common carrier for her sister States, may exhibit 
the models of her ships, perhaps of her "canal-boats" — her precious salines — 
the remains of her ancient forests — the dormant wealth of her Adirondacks — 
her grazing industry — her gigantic engines of war and of peace, and the end- 
less variety of her minor machineries and manufactures. 

New Jersey may exhibit her peculiarly varied mineral wealth, her locomotive 
engines, her carriages and equipments, fit to be displayed in the Bois de Bou- 
logne, and last, not least, and as forming a part of the " seventh group," the 
luxurious "mollusks," over which she, with New York, exercises undisputed 
sway. 

Pennsylvania may point, "not to her mines, but to her mountains of coal" — 
the broad and enduring basis of her wealth and power — already laying under 
tribute all the hearthstones of the north; to the perfection and delicacy of her 
manufactures ; to her new-found treasures in mineral oils ; to the Cyclopean en- 



13 

ergy of her furnaces, melting and moulding the iron of her "thousand hills;" 
while little Delaware may well display her gunpowder, and Maryland her tobacco, 
her iron, her chemicals, and the beauty and fineness of her building materials. 

The " sunny south," emerging from every cloud, and " turning her swords 
into ploughshares," may exhibit the richness and abundance of her semi-tropi- 
cal products, still so necessary to the welfare and comfort of the human race. 

The great northwest, looking out on the greatest of the lakes and the long 
interior chain of British waters, for which she furnishes the commercial outlet, 
may show her copper, her furs, and the lofty pines around the crystal sources 
of our great continental river, winding its majestic course through twenty de- 
grees of latitude to the cotton and sugar fields around the Gulf. 

The great valley itself, the destined centre of American empire, may send 
forth from each of her mighty group of States specimens of that gigantic miss 
of cereals, and of the millions of animals fed by those cereals, which soon must 
render it the dominant portion of the American Union. 

The States of the Pacific will not only exhibit their gold, their copper, and, 
above all, their quicksilver, so providentially and abundantly garnered up to aid 
our mining interests, but they may circumnavigate Cape Horn to carry to Paris 
one of the monster monarchs of their forests coeval with the Christian era; 
while our vast metalliferous interior, with its parallel mountain ranges, prolonga- 
tion of the Cordilleras of our sister continent, heavily laden with gold and sil- 
ver, and its broad and hitherto inaccessible basin, the laboratory of the conti- 
nent in the early geological ages, with its immense deposites of saline and al- 
kaline wealth, the basis of its future commerce, will send forth its glittering 
specimens for the admiration of Europe. 

From this precious, God-given variety of physical resources our government, 
doubtless, will wisely select, if all cannot be exhibited. In 1863, during the 
darkest hours of the great rebellion, now happily closed, our lamented and 
martyred President deemed it proper to send out a representative to the interna- 
tional statistical congress at Berlin. The delegate, on asking for instructions 
received the condensed and characteristic answer: " Show Europe our food and 
our gold." That important duty could then be only partially discharged, but 
may now be completed by visible proofs. The valley of the Mississippi must 
send out as living witnesses, vigorous stalks of its cereals, in all their varieties, 
laden heavily with their golden fruit ; and by their side the wonder-working 
agricultural machinery, doing the work of millions of men, and rendering possi- 
ble the planting, and reaping, and gathering in of harvests so enormous. The 
mines of America must also tell their story, each for itself, by actual specimens 
from every metalliferous peak and valley, from ocean to ocean, accompanied not 
only by accurate assays and descriptive memoirs, but by the metallurigic processes 
which extort from each its utmost value. 

With such evidence before its eyes, incredulous Europe may learn to believe 
the statistical tables which show a yearly growth of cereals in the American 
Union, not by hundreds, but by thousands of millions of bushels, and its ulti- 
mate ability to feed the civilized world. It may also come to comprehend the 
capacity of our mines not only to speedily extinguish our national debt, and 
meanwhile reduce the burden of the interest by hundreds of millions of dollars ; 
but, what is of far higher moral value, to hasten the period when our yoang re- 
public may resume its true position among the specie-paying nations of the 
globe. 

Above all, this great Exposition will unfold to assembled Europe the all- 
important truth, that of the outspread and fertile continent committed to our 
care, the seat of a future development so gigantic, at least one-half is still in its 
virgin state, broadly and liberally open to the over- worked and over-crowded 



14 

millions in the Old World, seeking to better their condition ; and where, with 
God's good providence, they may find a resting-place and a refuge from further 
poverty or want. 

SAMUEL B. RUGGLES, 
GEORGE OPDYKE, 
DENNING DUER, 
JAMES S. T. STRANAHAN, 
ELLIOTT C. COWDIN, 

Committee. 
Chamber of Commerce, New York, January 12, 1866. 



Note. — In the year 1850, 853,330,000 bushels of cereals were produced in the United 
States; in 1860, 1,205.642,129 bushels. By the year 1880, the amount will fall little short 
of two thousand five hundred millions. With increased immigration, it may much exceed 
that amount. 

A reduction in the yearly interest of only one-half of one per cent, for twenty years, on a 
debt of two thousand millions, would save two hundred millions. A full demonstration, at 
home and abroad, of the adequacy of our metallic and other resources, would effect that 
reduction. 



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